It’s another one of those only-in-New York politics stories.
The daughter of a trailblazing political family is elected to the House of Representatives — just as the family patriarch gets ready to head to the, well, Big House.
Rep.-elect Grace Meng’s (D-Queens) “freshman orientation day” in Washington, DC, this week was bittersweet: Back home, her pioneering father, Jimmy Meng, was pleading guilty in a bribery case.
He’s looking at 20 years — a sad turnaround for the first Asian member of the state Assembly.
(Not that ethnicity necessarily had anything to do with it; Albany is an equal-opportunity destroyer of souls.)
The elder member of the Meng dynasty conspired to have businessman Eric Hu give him $80,000 — ostensibly so Meng could bribe prosecutors into dropping their fraud case against Hu.
In federal court Wednesday, Meng admitted that he wasn’t really going to offer a bribe: In truth, he was “only” going to rip off Hu. In other words, perpetrate fraud on the fraudulent businessman.
No honor among thieves, eh?
In any event, prosecutors heard about the scam and got Hu to turn informant.
But give Meng some credit for originality. Passing money in a few envelopes — or even a suitcase?
Fuggedaboutit!
This is Gotham, where folks think outside the box: Meng wanted his $80K dropped off in a fruit basket.
Sadly, Grace Meng’s great day preparing for her first term in Congress next year will instead be memorable in a much more disappointing way: She’s become yet one more member of a politically connected Big Apple clan with a relative serving a term — behind bars.
Only in New York.